The departure of defensive end Aaron Lynch cast a fairly large shadow over the Irish football program, just as the Notre Dame coaching staff was opening its doors to over 600 high school coaches. Saturday’s practice was an open look for observers (media included) to see first hand the state of the Irish football team.

With the spring game set for Saturday, and more social-media melodrama happening this morning, it’s been an eventful few months for the Irish, and a full-contact scrimmage was likely just what the doctor ordered.

As they have been all spring, UND.com had the only video footage of the action. Here are some thoughts and observations.

0:10 — That’s one understated truck.

0:20 — We’ve got some serious hitting coming up, so I’ll do my best to give you guys the breakdown of who is running into who (or is it whom).

0:32 — Manti Te’o and Chris Watt (#66) have a mighty big collision before George Atkinson (#4) runs through the hole. The defensive staff were very fired up after Te’o’s play, but it sure looked like Watt did everything you’d ask of a lineman.

0:40 — That’s Zack Martin (#70) getting the best of Kapron Lewis-Moore (#89). It might be too soon to get really optimistic about Martin, but he’s got the chance to be a big-time, awards-level offensive lineman.

0:46 — Ishaq Williams (#11) stood up All-American tight end Tyler Eifert (#80). Running back Tyler Plantz got through the right side of the line, but Ishaq held up well at the point of attack.

0:54 — Louis Nix (#9) stood up Matt Hegarty (#77) then slid off the block and made the tackle on Cierre Wood. Nix had members of the Irish fanbase sweating bullets after some late-night tweeting, but all seems to be fine.

0:58 — Christian Lombard (#74) against Carlo Calabrese (#44). Well done by Lombard, who is having a really good spring.

1:05 — That’s Sheldon Day (#91) against Tate Nichols (#64). Heckuva job by the early-enrolled freshman holding up against a really big right tackle.

1:07 — Alex Welch (#82) against Ben Councell (#30). Welch did a nice job driving blocking, but Councell eventually shakes it and shows a nice bit of nastiness by finishing the play.

2:15 — Koyack and Anthony Rabasa (#56) meet in the hole, as Koyack drives Rabasa away from the runner.

2:44 — This looks just plain crazy. Kickoff gunner work and a massive collision on the first rep. Another gigantic hit by Utupo. (This drill is giving my flashbacks to my days as a gunner in high school football.)

3:15 — Good example of why we’ll see Ben Councell on kickoff coverage.

3:25 — That Jarrett Grace has himself quite a disposition.

3:34 — After nearly getting his clock cleaned by Utupo, cornerback Joe Romano gets his revenge on cornerback Josh Atkinson, who tries to take Romano on high and loses a big collision. Hearty celebration follows. Nobody wants to see guys get cleaned out, but I think it says a ton that Cierre Wood, Manti Te’o, and other starters are just as quick to celebrate the big play of a walk-on, as they are of a scholarship player. Good team atmosphere on display there.

3:58 — I’m on the Cam McDaniel bandwagon. I think he’s going to make a difference next year, even if it is in the secondary. He’s just a good football player.

4:04 — Looking for offensive evolution? How about that playcall/design by Chuck Martin and Brian Kelly, lifting a play from West Virginia’s playbook, on a quick lateral sweep that absolutely shredded Clemson last season. Fun design, and a lot less dangerous than it looks.

4:20 — Cierre Wood looking very decisive as her runs through what looks like the first team defense. Lot of real estate created by Harry Hiestand‘s guys.

4:25 — I’ll choose to call this good coverage by McDaniel, but it looked like Riddick had a step on him and Tommy Rees just overthrew it. (Look forward to being shredded for this defense of Rees, too.)

4:38 — Live bullets out there, as Anthony Rabasa cleans up Andrew Hendrix in the backfield for a big loss on the keeper.

4:47 — The benefit of running backs making plays out of the backfield? That’s Cierre Wood on Kendall Moore in coverage. Good throw by Hendrix and a nice gain on the mismatch.

4:55 — Catch by Robby Toma, strip by Cam McDaniel. I’m going to have him fighting Lo Wood for his job by the end of this video.

5:02 — Nice stick, Jarrett Grace.

5:15 — Shake and bake, Robby Toma, carrying the ball on a nice little end-around. Don’t think we saw that even once last year.

5:48 — Hi there, Davaris Daniels. I’m guessing we’d all be happy to see more of you in these videos.

5:53 — Tommy Rees: Speed Merchant.

6:05 — Kona Schwenke making plays in the backfield.

6:18 — Gunner Kiel steps up in the pocket and throws a dart into a tight window, with Alex Welch feeling the impact after the catch. Tough to see from this angle, but I’m guessing Gunner held onto it a second too long.

Yes Keith, Tommy does not look like he can keep up with the speed of the game, Kiel looks as though he is getting used to the college game pace – in relation to the field turf. – Are there more injuries with fake turf or grass?

The Defensive line looks very fast. It could be the D knows the plays being called, the fake turf, the line coaching along with talent level getting stronger, camera at ground level or the combination of it all.

They are asians. They are actually smarter, even the dumb ones are smarter than the other races. They can be nasty. They also can be immature but they are also ALOT easier to discipline. Yes, they act like thugs sometimes but they have honor and respect. You just have to get it out of them. We should recruit them more and not let the pipeline die out.

dude, someone needs to take a hawaiian vacation:
1. Polynesians are in no way shape or form asian, get that straight pleeeeaaaaaasssseeeee…..
2. We did try to tap into the Hawaii pipeline, Punahou (the alma mater of MT and yours truly) had two 4 star DEs this year, one of them offered to ND who’s going to Stanford, the other is going to Oregon
3. About the smarts thing, just thought I’d share a story, one of those DE was walking around our open campus carrying around THE ENTIRE OREGON PLAYBOOK, keeping a loose grip, just holding onto a quarter of it. THE ENTIRE OREGON PLAYBOOK!!!!!!! That’s probably worth millions, so much for being ridiculously smart.
4. Although there is a large Asian population in hawaii (70%ish), the football players are micronesian, polynesian, and hawaiian (type of polynesian). They are usually what we call “mokes”, basically lowlifes, this isn’t racist, being a “moke” is a thing of pride for them, MT, RT, Schwenke and the rest are the exception, not the rule

You can’t leave for the pros until after junior year, thems the rules…. an Ohio state RB appealed it, got it changed, declared for the draft, rule got changed back, he was sitting around waiting with no Football for 2 years, lost his career

There’ s the racist dickasman we all know and love! Where you been? I think Golson looks electric in these videos but also looks like he puts the ball on the ground a lot. That won’t get him many game reps. I like the td pass he threw however.

In the immortal words of Ron Burgundy,”Hey, let’s leave the Mothers out of this.” You love to play the role of provocateur on this board by saying outrageous things just to get a reaction from everyone. I wonder what drives that urge psychologically? Your comments are neither insightful nor informative. Your posts have the effect of a verbal speed bump, serving only to interrupt an otherwise enjoyable read of the good posts on here. I want to challenge you to examine your behavior and think about why you say the things that you do on here. Try to resist the urge to come back with some sarcastic, smarmy, or otherwise boorish response. I think you can be funny at times, but the race stuff is over the line.

Keith, clearly Dick’s comments today are out of step with the vast majority of your readership. No idea what Nude has done to be edited in the past. But Dick’s comments today are moronic, and should not be tolerated.

I completely agree. Keith must be traveling today. I thought we had a post about being more civil on here. Seems like it lasted for a while, but now Dick is back to his old ways again. He really adds nothing to this discussion. I would be okay with a ban for him.

Lynch – as far as I know the kid is still on campus with the intention of finishing out this semester, and this speaks well of him. I have also read that he has a 3.0 grade average – this too speaks well of him. If he is on campus this Saturday will he go to the game? If he does he will be watching his friends getting all those yells and screams down on the field, cameras will have found him and will probably be recording every second he is there.
For everything he has gone through good and bad over the last 16 months he knows that this is the last time he will be here unless he comes as a member of a visiting team. In any case he will be an outsider.

ihisty
That is the same question I asked Keith a couple days ago. (no answer)
The kid is 19, highly impulsive. I’d bet about a million $$ he’s had some second thoughts. But in all I’ve read about this, I’m not sure that will matter at all.

As best as I can tell, ND was totally fed up with him. Kelly had apparently made many special concessions to accomodate him (no idea what those were), the staff was getting tired of it, the players were getting tired of it, and fankly it wasn’t working. He kept up the “I hate this place” stuff on FB, got into a raucous fight with Tate Nichols, and overall – according to some – had reached the “cancerous” level in the lockerroom.

So Lynch might have terrible regrets (and might not) but I sense the door is closed.

Nudie – The question can only be answered by Lynch.
Given what his big brother Manti said about him and given Manti’s anger at some of the really nasty remarks about him – with which I agree – I think there is hope that he might come back. If he is still on campus, which I assume he is if he is going to finish the semester before leaving, I think there is still a chance. IMO he would have to go in front of the whole team, apologize for being a horse’s ass and then leave it up to them – his teammates, not Kelly.

I personally think he is making a mistake but I am just an old (retired) fart in Northern New England who went to ND but never graduated and who gets (some of) his jollies from coming to this site 3 or 4 times a day minimum (GREAT job Keith!!) and getting the latest.

nudeman - Apr 17, 2012 at 1:37 PM

Possible.

But I’d rate the chances of his return at below 5%.
There was a lot of smoke and mirrors about everything leading up to this. But one thing strikes me as 100% true: The decision was mutual.

– System. Lynch likes the 4-3 defense with his role being rushing the QB. The 3-4 makes this more difficult and gives him responsibilities he likes less.

– Losing. Disappointing season, especially the loss to FSU, which he left for ND.

Mike Frank believes that a better season, particularly a win against FSU, would have made him happy enough to stay.

My take is a bit different, though all three are clearly factors. Lynch was always a bit of a fish out of water at ND. While he did OK academically, he would rather expend less effort given that his identity and future livelihood is as a football player. It’s unlikely that he would have positively contributed to ND’s stellar GSR. My guess is that he would be far happier as a frat boy than in dorms filled with ND student types. Most important, Aaron has a volatile and fragile psychology that makes it difficult to adapt to less than ideal settings. I imagine there was tremendous pressure on him to be more positive and cooperative, and this added to the unhappiness.

nudeman - Apr 17, 2012 at 2:15 PM

bern
You seem to have inside or borderline inside info frequently.
Do you agree, based on what you know that there is basically no chance he’ll reconsider?
And if he did, would they take him back?

I have little inside information about Lynch, though this might change this week.

I don’t know about the legalisms since ND gave Lynch his release. I imagine he is busy talking to other schools rather than reconsidering his (and Kelly’s) decision. Best efforts and unusual accommodations appear to have been made to avoid the parting, but once it occurred, it was final and everyone moved on. While nothing is impossible, I think it would require an amazingly convincing act of contrition and change of heart on the part of Aaron to even begin the conversation.

Can we all please just move past the AL situation!! our defense will be just fine without him not worried at all.. wish him the best luck!! Does anyone know who the number 1 qb is for the spring game?? I think bennett jackson is goin to be a big time player this year for us!! TE is goin to be one of the best players in the country this year, but our qb has to be able to get him the ball down the seem!

Who cares about Lynch? If the overall team defense improves, there’s no need to dwell on one player who wants out. Kelly an Co. need to coach up the players they do have. If they don’t, then it won’t matter if Lynch is on the team or not.

I think EG is goin to be the clear number 1 after this spring game.. ! How nice will it be for our own qb to have the threat to throw and run the ball..!! I think ND will be a top five team before its all said and done!! I am not to worried about our wideouts??.. Tj jones, toma, eifert no worries!!.. Brian kelly will have it all put togeather.. Just no TO inside the redzone this year!! Ouch!!. Go irish!!